big bang, black holes, no math - texas a&m...

IntroductionTopic 1: Introduction

Big Bang, Black Holes, No Math

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ASTR/PHYS 109Dr. David Toback

Lecture 1



Before we start…

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•Get comfortable… we will be using the full lecture time today•Studies show that the students who sit up front get the best grades– Studies also explain WHY– http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/TeachingArticle/PerkinsWieman_PT.pdf



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Overview

1.What this course is really about and why I’m teaching it

2.How the course is organized3.Stuff you’ll need for the

course and the next lecture



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Big PictureThis course is really designed to teach the wonder and excitement of the universe around us

• I want it to be understandable• By the end of the course, I want you to be able to COMMUNICATE the understanding, the excitement and the evidence to others



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The Story•I think in terms of crime stories and the evidence for themThe Scientific Case of How the Universe Came to be the Way is Now

•We have a good degree of confidence in this story



Some of the Questions•How did the Universe come to exist? •A Big Bang occurred… then what?•How did we get from a Big Bang ~14 billion years ago to the Universe we have today?

•What are black holes REALLY? •What are dark matter and dark energy?• Is the Universe REALLY expanding? Will it contract again and we’ll all die?

•Should I be worried? 6



Questions and Evidence•These are important questions for all for humankind•Everyone should know about (some of) these questions and (some of) what we know about the answers•You should also know something about the evidence

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Communicating the Excitement•A great deal of the understanding can be had WITHOUT the math– You can enjoy music without being a musician or a composer

•As future leaders I want you to be able to go out into the world and effectively teach your senators, friends, co-workers, etc. why this stuff is exciting and important



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Back to the Course

This course is designed to teach you about the Big Bang, Black Holes, Dark

Matter, Dark Energy, and other stuff, and to do it

without the Math

Next talk about HOW we’ll do it…



Being a Detective• Want you to use evidence to make decisions like a detective (Sherlock, Elementary, Criminal Minds, CSI, NCIS, Bones, Law & Order, others like Scooby-Doo…). For example:– Don’t need you know HOW to do DNA tests– Do need you to understand that DNA tests

(using blood from the scene of the crime) can tell us whose blood it is and provides evidence they were there

• Can we put together evidence that would convince a jury to convict? 10



What’s the Evidence?• What is the evidence that the Big Bang actually occurred?

• What is the evidence that supports our understanding of the “history” of the Universe from the beginning until today?

• What is the evidence for little things we can’t see directly with our own eyes? • Atoms, protons and electrons• Dark Matter• Black Holes

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Course ContentThese are REALLY big questions

• We want to know what we observe in the universe– Big and Small

• To do this we need to understand some of the most important ideas in science–Quantum Mechanics–General Relativity–Others



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Don’t worry•Don’t worry… we aren’t going to do ALL of physics in a semester•We aren’t going to ask you to calculate anything•What we want is for you to understand, and re-tell, the story and explain some of the evidence



Ok… worry a little•This course will make you question what you know about nature and history. If you are uncomfortable with that, you may not like this course

•This course is harder than it looks. If you are looking for an “Easy A”, you should drop before it counts against you

• If you are looking for a course where you will can get an A if you put in the work, then this could be a good fit

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How the course is organized

Next few slides are on course organization,

grades etc…http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/CourseOrganization.pdf

(page 2-35) Andhttp://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/ClassSchedule.pdf

• Overview: Grades, Course website, FAQ• Other Stuff• eCampus Quizzes• PLRQ Reading• Warmups

Big Bang & Black Holes Course Organization Document

Lecture 1 Notes

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OverviewFirst describe how everything fits together, then describe the assignments in detail

This document can be found at http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/CourseOrganization.pdf

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Class Time• We meet Monday and Wednesday from 4:10PM to 5:25PM

• Will use the full time period• I expect you to be on time, and prepared for class by being caught up with all the assignments

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Big Bang & Black Holes Course Organization Document 5

Course Home Pagehttp://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109

Most things can be found thereNeed help? email at

[email protected]

Course Website

Syllabus is also on HowdyDon’t need to write this all down!Copy of all the lecture notes at

http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/Lectures/


Regular and Honors Sections•Regular sections– ASTR 109, Section 501– PHYS 109, Section 501

•Honors sections– ASTR 109, Section 201– PHYS 109, Section 201

There is no difference between the Physics and Astronomy sections (All meet together)

This course counts as 3 credit hours for your "Life and Physical Sciences Core Courses” requirement

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Honors vs. Regular Sections•There is no difference between the Physics and Astronomy Honors sections lectures - All meet together– You should have gotten an email from me

•Assignments are the same, except students in the Honors section have an extra paper on a topic we agree upon –See Course Webpage

•Want to be in the honors section but couldn’t get in? In the honors section but want to get out? Let me know and we’ll fix it

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Coming to Class• Need you to be proactive DURING class!! Get into it and have fun

• If you need sugar or caffeine go for it… just do it quietly– Candy/Soda machines nearby

• Laptops/cellphones are NOT allowed during class except for iClicker quizzes since they are too distracting. – Will allow them for notes in the first 5 rows with explicit permission

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GradesThe course grade will be:1. Short Papers in Peerceptiv: 90%2. Pre-Lecture Reading Questions

(PLRQ) Assignments and In-Class Quizzes: 5%

3. End-Of-Chapter (EOC) quizzes in eCampus: 5%

No in-class exams or finalThe lab (ASTR/PHYS 119) is a separate

course, not required, and NOT being run this semester

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Grades• I like for my students to do well and I like giving

lots of good grades • While I do give lots of A’s, this is not an “Easy A”

class despite what you may have heard• Do all the work and I’ll make it worth your while,

both in terms of fun and your grade– If you blow off the easy stuff or don’t ask for

help when you need it, then I’m unlikely to have much sympathy when you ask for a grade change at the end of the semester

– I’ve given lots of F’s• It will be a lot of work, so if you don’t want to

keep up with the class every day, work hard and stretch your mind, you should drop now

• I’ll expect you to keep at it until you get it right


Typical Order of Things

Read Chapters for the whole

Unit

Take PLRQ quiz in eCampus before next

lecture

Go to Lecture, take in-class Clicker quizzes and actively participate

After we finish a chapter in Lecture, do the End-of-Chapter

Quiz in eCampus

(Things will be a little different for the first week)http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/ClassSchedule.pdf

Start Paper if we have finished Chapter 6, 8, 12 or 17

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Tentative Schedule for 2019C

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This document can be found athttp://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/ClassSchedule.pdf


Frequently Asked Questions Page

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•There is an FAQ page for the course

http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/109FAQ.shtml

•In general, you should check there if you have a question about the course or assignments before emailing


eCampusWhere you will find all the online assignments

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Login instructions at http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/ECampus_Quiz_Instructions_and_Help.pdf


Use eCampus for many things• Papers: (Part of your grade)

– Peerceptiv– TurnItIn

• Warmup Quizzes: (Not part of your grade, but required)– 4 Separate sets of quizzes– All are Pass/Revise except Astronomy Misconception Survey (AMS)

• Pre-Lecture Reading Questions (PLRQ): (Part of your grade)– Quizzes

• Unit 1 is Pass/Revise, the others are not– TurnItIn (Submit your own questions for Unit 2 only as

Pass/Revise)• End-of-Chapter (EOC) quizzes: (Part of your grade)

– All the quizzes are Pass/Revise• Other:

– Announcements– Grades

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General Information About Quizzes in

eCampus•Warmup quizzes and PLRQ Quizzes– Today’s lecture

•End-of-Chapter (EOC)– Later lecture

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Warmup Quizzes• In the “Quizzes” folder, then go to “Required Warm-ups”• Four sets of quizzes, each with multiple easy quizzes and designed to teach you

how to do things in the course (and practice for the science later)– Part 1: First quiz and “Astronomy Misconception Survey” (AMS). First quiz

is just to get going in the course. Since AMS is just designed to tell us what you know coming into the course you only get one try and it won’t count as part of your grade.

– Part 2: When you are done with AMS, a new set of quizzes will open. They are “How To Ask For Help/Additional Attempts for eCampus Quizzes.” There are five of them. Since most people don’t get all the quizzes quickly, and need to learn to get good at them, this is how we help-you-help-us teach you to ask for help in a useful way

– Part 3: This quiz is designed to teach you about the Requirements in the course. Most of what you will need to answer those quiz question is in this document

– Part 4: This is about learning how to use the Peerceptiv system. We’ll come back to this later when we are starting to get to papers in the course.

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Perfect QuizzesBad news:• To pass the course you need to pass all* of them• Passing some of the requires a perfect scoreGood news:• You can take as many attempts as you want until you pass

• Most don’t require a 100%. – End of Chapter quizzes only require an 80%, but

Warmups do • Feedback for most quiz questions• I will only count your best scoreI REALLY want you to learn and get good grades!

*Ok…Not every assignment has this rule (e.g. PLRQ and AMS)

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Discouraging Guessing• You get unlimited attempts, but to discourage guessing if you use 5 attempts and need more, you will have to request them

• Specific instructions on how to request more attempts (following the proper format for simple email or using the worksheet helps us help you)

• There are a set of warmup quizzes to help you get good at asking for more attempts

http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/ECampus_Quiz_Instructions_and_Help.pdf

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Getting Help/Additional Attempts for Quizzes

• Send an email at [email protected]• Two ways: Send email where you type in the information, or

send a copy of the worksheet we have provided– Instructions on Page 3 of

http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/ECampus_Quiz_Instructions_and_Help.pdf

– Follow the instructions on how to get to all the information about your previous attempts that you will need to send us in your request• For good examples see Page 4

– Direct link to an excel worksheet at– http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/RequestingAttemptsWorksheet.xlsx

• With that information we can usually figure out what is causing you to struggle (and will usually just give you two more attempts)

• Then again, maybe you are correct and we need to fix it in eCampus! If that's the case, we'll give you extra credit!

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Pre-Lecture Reading Questions (PLRQ)

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Pre-Lecture Reading Questions• It is important to learn how to ask good science questions (or tell if a question is good scientifically), and to be well prepared for Lecture

• For these reasons we will have a number of PLRQ Assignments– Quizzes (One per Unit, 6 total)

• In the “Quizzes” folder, then go to “PLRQ Quizzes”

– 1 written assignment to be submitted (more on this later)

• Guidelines for what we are looking for at

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http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/PLRQ_Guidelines.pdf


How can I tell if a question is well asked?

1.Is it obvious the question-asker read the Unit (or rather, is it not obvious that they didn't read)?

2.Is the question relevant to this unit's reading?

3.Is the question clear and well-phrased? 4.Does it reflect critical thinking? 5.Is it relevant to the science of the

reading?23


Two Types of PLRQ Assignments1. Quizzes, Units 1-6

– Each Unit has a quiz with 10 questions where you evaluate the quality of each question

– Designed to help you decide if it’s a good question– Feedback will help you learn about whether it is

good, and contain some physics answers– Won’t get the same questions for each quiz– Unit 1 is Pass/Revise– Units 2-6 are just the highest grade you achieve.

Unlimited attempts, but need to ask for more after Attempt 5

2. You submit your own questions for Unit 2– Pass/Revise until you get 4 excellent questions– You write your own questions and submit to

TurnItInThere are late penalties 24


Lab CourseASTR/PHYS 119

(Not being run for Fall 2019)

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Other Stuff

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Class Time• Lecture will be a time where you and I

interact by asking and answering each others questions

• You will need to prepare BEFORE lecture – Do the reading assignments– Do the “Pre-Lecture Reading Questions”

Quiz– Be ready to be answer questions in class

using a clicker• If you don’t understand something, ask a

question in class!


Clickers and In Class Quizzes•We will be doing a lot of clicker quizzes during class•You will need a clicker, phone or computer– Can get a used one/use the same one for multiple classes

•More information at http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/iClickers.shtml

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Accounts, email and eCampus

You are responsible for checking your official email

periodically for announcements


In-Class QuizzesThere will frequently be in-class quizzes which are part of your grade•Most will be done with an iClicker– Be ready to do one every day

•Sometimes we will do in-class writing– Bring a sheet of lined paper and a pen every day

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Required TextbookRequired Textbook•Big Bang, Black Holes, No Math (Toback)•Extra credit for students who email me corrections which make it better (list of previous corrections online)

• eBook or paper is fine• Can order at bigbang.physics.tamu.edu• First 4 chapters online if your book is late http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/ThisSemester/Textbook_temp.pdf

• Copy on Reserve at Evans if needed32


Recommended TextbooksRecommended books• Briefer History of Time (Hawking)• The Science of Interstellar (Thorne)• Theory of Everything (Hawking)• Stephen Hawking’s Universe (Filkin)• The First Three Minutes (Weinberg)• Other readings on the WebMake sure you get the most up-to-date versions of each (see webpage)– Not “Brief History”, Briefer History– Paperbacks available for each– Looks like about $15 for ALL of them (with

shipping) if you get them online

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Recitation and TA Help• While there is no recitation for this course, there are Teaching Assistants (TA’s).

• They can help you:– Understand the science and get good at learning

how to understand how to use Peerceptiv, and do the things necessary to pass the quizzes

– Give you feedback on your paper drafts before they are submitted

– Help review your case if you think you were mis-graded

• Their emails are on the main page


Just for Fun… • We have created a “just for fun” Facebook account for students (past, present and future) who want to stay in touch with the course

• Learning about the Big Bang and Black Holes Without the Math

• It’s not part of the course, but I try to post fun, related things there periodically– If you send me something fun (and appropriate

for public consumption) I’ll post it for everyone– If you send me something fun, but inappropriate,

I’ll say thank you and just enjoy privately• Also, lots of fun stuff on http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/Video/

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Next Time… • Start with an in-class written quiz and in-class iClicker quiz

• Talk more about – End-of-Chapter Quizzes in eCampus

– Grades• Lecture is on Chapter 2• The Very Big



Prep for Lecture 2 Pop QuizThe in-class quiz at the beginning of the next class on will contain at least two of the following questions:•Why are you taking this class? •What do you most want to learn about?–Be prepared to answer these two honestly (there are no right answers, and don’t tell me what you think I want to hear)

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Prep for Next Time – L1• All this is posted in the lecture notes!!• Reading:

– Required: BBBHNM: Chapter 1-4– Recommended Reading:

• BHOT: Chap. 1-3• SHU: Chap. 1-2• TOE: Chap. 1

• eCampus Stuff– Read eCampus Instructions on the main course page

• http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/ECampus_Quiz_Instructions_and_Help.pdf– Complete both the Warm-up Quizzes which are in Part 1 (will assign Part 2 next time)

• Extensions granted if needed. Email me– If you need additional attempts, follow the instructions or fill out the worksheet

• http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/RequestingAttemptsWorksheet.xlsx• How to get to your old submission information

http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/ECampus_Quiz_Instructions_and_Help.pdf#page=3• Pre-Lecture Reading Questions:

– Read Instructions on what kinds of questions we are looking for at• http://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/PLRQ_Guidelines.pdf

– Unit 1 quiz (will open after you finish Warmups 1) assigned next time• Honors Section:

– If you are in the Honors Section I need you to reply to the email I sent you• Other Prep

– Make sure you are receiving email using the Official A&M email, will use it for class announcements– Bring lined paper and your iClicker to the next class 18



Useful Links• Course Websitehttp://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109• Course Organizationhttp://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/CourseOrganization.pdf• Class Schedulehttp://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/ClassSchedule.pdf• eCampus Instructionshttp://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/ECampus_Quiz_Instructions_and_Help.pdf

• PLRQ Instructionshttp://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/PLRQ_Guidelines.pdf• Lecture Noteshttp://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/Lectures/• Papers and Peerceptivhttp://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/WritingAssignments/Papers_and_Peerceptiv.pdf

• FAQ Pagehttp://people.physics.tamu.edu/toback/109/109FAQ.shtml

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Full Set of Readings So Far• Required: BBBHNM: Chap 1-4• Recommended:– BHOT: Chap. 1-3–SHU: Chap. 1-2–TOE: Chap. 1

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